Nebraska set a program record with five conference finalists last weekend in a rugged Big Ten Tournament, placing third behind Penn State and Ohio State in the team race.

“The Big Ten is the toughest wrestling conference, and nobody can really dispute that,” Husker coach Mark Manning said Thursday afternoon. “To get five guys in the finals is really something.” 

Despite the impressive weekend, perception of Nebraska’s tournament was marred by its 0-5 record in the finals, dropping four matches to #1 seeds. Antrell Taylor, Christopher Minto and Camden McDanel each lost to Nittany Lion wrestlers in front of a raucous crowd at Bryce Jordan Center.

“Out of those five matches, we wrestled three Penn State guys, and the environment we wrestled in was even more hostile than the dual meet,” Manning said. “I thought our guys did a really good job, and I think they’re going to be battle-tested. Antrell Taylor wrestling PJ Duke at Penn State twice, but he never wrestled on our ground — we’ve always had to wrestle in his environment and his comfort zone. It bodes well for our guys who are looking forward to having a little bit more even playing field in Cleveland.”

Speaking of the returning NCAA champion Taylor, he beat Duke in tiebreakers in the dual but dropped a 12-4 major decision in the Big Ten final.

“Antrell has already learned a lot from that loss, and we’re going to change it around here in a week,” Manning said. “There’s a lot of really great takeaways (from the weekend) — I thought we wrestled really well. Was it a good finish and could it have been better? Sure, absolutely. We could have walked out with three Big Ten champs, but we didn’t. We’ve got to change the narrative at the NCAA tournament and turn those guys into champions.”

Injured Huskers Already Back

A few Huskers left Big Tens with some injuries, but Manning expects Jacob Van Dee, LJ Araujo and Silas Allred to be ready to go in Cleveland, Ohio. Van Dee suffered a concussion against Lucas Byrd of Illinois, Araujo injury defaulted out of his third-place match against Joey Blaze, and Allred medically forfeited out of the tournament after beating Dylan Fishback in the quarters.

“They’re all a lot better and they all practiced today. Jacob has already passed the concussion protocol, so he’s good to go,” Manning said. “LJ sprained the inside of his knee, so he’s a lot better than he was on Sunday, but we’re very cautious with LJ just because we knew there is a lot of wrestling in two weeks. That’s why we pulled the plug on him on Sunday to not hurt his knee worse than it was. He’ll be fine in a week.”

As for the sixth-year senior Allred, he came into the tournament with an injured elbow and left with it re-injured in addition to a sprained ankle. 

“Silas sprained his ankle and he had hurt his elbow coming into the tournament,” Manning said. “His elbow was really bad, so just giving it time off on Sunday was huge in getting him back on track.”

10 Qualifiers For Nebraska

For the first time in 10 years Nebraska, will be bringing a full lineup to NCAAs. The last time the Huskers qualified all 10 was in 2020, only for the tournament to be cancelled. Before that was 2016.

Despite going into Big Tens as the #11 seed at 125 pounds, redshirt freshman Kael Lauridsen earned an allocation for the conference. After losing by technical fall in the opening round, Lauridsen won two in a row on the back side to secure the automatic qualifying spot. He then dropped a 4-3 decision to Iowa’s Dean Peterson before beating #5 seed Ayden Smith of Rutgers for seventh place.

“I think Kael not only wrestled a good tournament, but he gained momentum as the tournament was going on,” Manning said. “Beating the Michigan State kid (to place) was a huge match, then coming back and getting a huge win against the Rutgers kid, who is tough. And he wrestled really tough against Dean Peterson, so he’s starting to wrestle the way we know he can.”

The Huskers auto-qualified nine of their guys at Big Tens, but Chance Lamer missed the cut and needed an at-large bid, which he then received, making Nebraska one of six teams to qualify 10.

“I think we’re in a good spot right now, and our guys are fired up for this opportunity and are in a good spot mentally and just have to get ready to take it to another level,” Manning said. “Our guys are really positive and excited about being in the room. They’re really thriving off of each other. We have a really tight team and they believe in each other.”

Six Huskers Earn Top-8 Seeds

The seeds for the NCAA Championships came out Wednesday night, and Nebraska is projected to finish fourth based on those seeds. 

Nebraska’s NCAA Seeds

125 – #25 seed Lauridsen

133 – #13 seed Van Dee

141 – #3 seed Brock Hardy

149 – #20 seed Lamer

157 – #2 seed Taylor

165 – #6 seed Araujo

174 – #3 seed Minto

184 – #8 seed Allred

197 – #11 seed McDanel

285 – #4 seed AJ Ferrari

For Manning and his staff, the seeds don’t really mean a lot.

“We’re not really fixated too much on seeds because it's more about getting our guys ready to go,” Manning said. “I thought for the most part it was where we thought we’d be. We thought Jacob Van Dee was definitely going to be higher, but we like him where he is. Cam McDanel, we thought would be higher, but at the end of the day it is what it is, and you go and try and be your best.”

Nebraska actually has better seeds this year than it did a year ago when it hoisted the runner-up trophy with nine qualifiers. A number of Huskers made the medal stand who were not seeded to do so – Van Dee at 133, Minto at 165, Allred at 184 and McDanel at 197.

“It doesn’t matter,” Manning said of where guys are seeded. “We’ve had guys in the past, like Christopher Minto went in last year the 12-seed, Jacob went in the 17-seed, and Camden McDanel was the 20-seed. You make your own bed and you’ve got to go and beat someone good.”

After last season’s program-best second-place finish, Nebraska has extra confidence going into this NCAA tournament. Last season was Nebraska’s first team trophy since 2009’s fourth-place finish.

“There’s a lot of confidence in our team and a lot of belief,” Manning said. “Confidence is a huge aspect, but believing in it when you put your foot on the line and the whistle blows and go show them what you’re all about. Our guys are excited about competition, and I think that’s where our team was last year, too.”